Monday, May 17, 2010

Wow what a fun weekend of racing! Showed up late in the afternoon on Friday for practice as I had to find out what the next kid is going to be (I will be having a girl in October!). Didn't make much of a different as the rain had kept the track pretty moist. The pit area was pretty soft as well so we mostly crammed into the same area. Our little area was "Little Japan" as we had the Kyosho, Mugen and Tamiya teams all in our own tent city. This years layout was much smaller than the last time I was at this track, but it offered a bunch of varied terrain such as ripple, sweeping turns, technical jumps and a super man jump. The dirt changed constantly, starting out moist and gradually drying out to a very hard and dry surface by the mains. Tires choices were all over the place and not many were running the same tires! I went from JConcept sevens to AKA City Blocks to JConcept Cross Hairs and finally deciding on JConcept Subcultures in Blue compound sauced up with Buggy Grip 2 and felt they were awesome. I don't think anyone else was running JConcept tires and I really think it put them at a disadvantage as the Subcultures were Dialed!

Qualifying was Qual Points using 3 rounds on Saturday and a forth on Sunday.

In 8th scale Electric It was really down to myself and Tamiya Canada driver Steve Bortolotti. Steve took three rounds of qualifying to take the TQ. I was on a TQ pace in round 3 but a last lap, last corner roll took it out from under me (grrrrrr! haha)! I had 2 second place finishes in the rounds and ended up in P2 for the 10 minute triple A Mains. I think the top 5 in qualifying was

1 - Steve Bortolotti - Tamiya 801Xe / Proline Caliber M4

2 - John Summach - Kyosho MP9e / JConcept Subculture Blue

3 - Abiye Birku - Tamiya 801Xe / Proline Caliber M4

4 - Chet Kelsey - AE RC8Be / Proline Crow/Bow M3

5 - Tom Wright - Tamiya 801Xe / Proline Recoil M4

In Nitro, I think I have finally stumbled upon a set up that suits my driving style. I had struggled quite a bit at Tillsonberg (even for it being my first Nitro race ever) but for my outdoor debut things were coming together. Again, the car was pretty much as good as any other one out there and I did manage to get one 3rd place in the round and a 4th place in the round (both part of the semi exclusive 12 lap club) to tie Abiye for 4th. His tie breaker was better though, so I ended up in 5th place in the A Main (I'll take it though for only my second nitro race!). As memory serves me the Top 5 in Expert Nitro Buggy were:

A1 - Right off the tone, I put a mid air pass on Steve off the superman jump to take the lead. Steve had a bad landing and broke something in his steering I think. I managed to stretch it out a bit but then my motor must have been over heating as I started to lose power and braking. I knew I had a decent lead so I tried not to push it too far so I wouldn't thermal. Abiye was gunning me down but I managed to take the win.

A2 - I iced my motor, geared down and even installed a fan on the motor to try and keep it cool but I think the damage to the rotor was already done! LOL. At the tone, I took an early lead over Steve and started to stretch it out and again my motor started to lose power and I was having problems making the big jump. Steve and I diced it out swapping the lead many times and it came down to me narrowly leading him into the last lap. Steve was on my ass and I ended up getting a bit of a love tap from behind a few corners from the finish and Steve took A2. I honestly feel it was a pretty aggressive "pass" for such a respected driver (I use it in quotes as passes in my book usually do not involve rear ending the car in front to make the pass). I know a few people came up to me after who saw it and thought I was robbed, but the overall win was on the line and things happen when pressure is on. Whatcha gonna do right? It is just toy car racing in the end. Besides, there was still one more Main.

A3 - I didn't even wait for the superman jump this time as Steve left a door open in the third corner and I dove right in. This I must say was probably one of the best races I have ever been in. I do not know how many times we swapped the lead! The track was super blown out and the superman jump became a crap shoot to land. It came down to whomever was chasing the leader had to do the superman jump to gain ground. It worked as I made numerous passes on Steve over that jump as he was single singling it for most of the race. Back and forth for most of the race. I did manage to stretch out about a 5 second lead with only a few minutes left but then unfortunately got tangled with a back marker which dropped me to third. I didn't even know I lost the lead as the announcer didn't say much during the race and I was single singling the big jump. Once I found out where I was I put the hammer down and had to really pin it to make the jump as my motor again was overheating. I managed to get back into the lead (by jumping past Steve on the big jump) with a few laps left. With Steve on my ass I knew that we were both going to have to go big on the jump for the last few laps. Sure enough Steve stepped it up and started jumping it as well. I lost the lead after I cased the jump and had to again try and make a move on Steve. I was ALL OVER him for the last two laps trying to force an error or get a line on him and it came right down to the wire, but he held me off to take A3 and the overall. It was a fantastic race!

Equipment Used:

Kyosho MP9e

Peak Racing 5400mah 45C 2 cell pack x 2

Team Orion VDS 1409 Servo

Mamba Monster Max ESC

Tekin T8 2050 Motor (12/46)

JConcepts Mono Max Wheels

JConcepts Subculture Tires (Blue)

JConcepts Illuzion RC8e Body

Team Orion Race Spec Charger (2C charging)

My MP9e Set Up

Expert Nitro A Main

My first 1/2 hour race! I didn't know what to expect as I have never run for this long. Fellow electric racer Steve Mostacci was my pit man for the race and he did a great job! At the tone I had a pretty good start and while 1 and 2 stretched it out I was comfortably in 3rd place. about 10 laps in or so though my car just died. Steve ran it back into the pits and it would not start. He checked out the car and box but we couldn't figure out what was wrong. The pitman next to us took a look and it turned out that my exhaust gas line was torn in two (not sure how that happens?). He shortened it and they got me back in the race. At this point I am about 8 laps down (took 245 seconds to fix me). So at this point I am just out there to run and at least finish the race. I flamed out a couple of times but the car was still pretty good in the super loose conditions. Not too sure what was going on in the race, but there was some drama with George Stilliadis. I think it was something about his car flamed out and they restarted from his pit tent or something (I don't really know the Pro Series rules). It was also a race of attrition as meny did not finish the race. My boy Jerome though ran a superb race with his MP9 to take the win for the Red Army and Marlene had a good race with her MP9 for bumping up from the B Main. Good to see Kyosho putting cars in the A Main again! I think I ended up in 5th or 6th place maybe? Justin William made a mid air pass on Jordan Krupp on the last lap to take second place. I didn't see it, but the crowd went wild!

Equipment Used:

Kyosho MP9SE

Team Orion MTE CRF Alpha Engine

Team Orion VDS2015 Throttle Servo

Team Orion VDS1409 Steering Servo

Peak Racing RX Pack

JConcepts Mono Max Wheels

JConcepts Subculture Tires (Blue)

JConcepts Illuzion RC8e Body

Team Orion Race Spec Charger (1C charging)

Kyosho Multi Starter Box 2.0

Jerome's and My MP9 Nitro Set Up's

Random Thoughts

- I really do think my MP9e was superior on the track this weekend. The handling was exceptional in the ripples and over the superman jump (I made up a lot of time in those sections) and had lots of forward bite compared to many. The JConcept Subcultures provided really consistent and predictable grip too. I don't know why more people don't run JConcept tires. They come out of the molds with ZERO flashing or bead defects and mount up really sweet (much better than Proline, WAY better than Losi and even better than AKA).

- Out of 12 cars in the Electric A Main, there were at least 8 different types of tires chosen for the mains!

- I am not a fan of Truggy's.

- I am really not a fan of getting a flying Truggy to the shin....they break skin (at the bare minimum)

- I cannot imaging a 1 hour race. I thought half an hour was more than enough.

- At tech, I had lots of room for more fuel...time to add some extra line and maybe get to 10 minute pits!

- Starting to get into the Nitro thing more and more. Especially now that the car is working better for me. (I told you guys to watch out.....there are more electric crossover's coming too!)

- Great to see hardcore racers Marco and Marlene drive out here from Montreal to race in lots of the Ontario races. They are great to have around the scene and are a big part in what makes the race scene fun.

- There were a fair amount of trailers at he race. I need to get me one of these. I am sure the night life at these races is quite fun. Maybe I'll start a johnnyboy.ca "R/C Cribs" section at the next race!

- GREAT bunch of guys at the race. Everyone was helping everyone out with parts, pitting or whatever needed to be done.

- I am going to get a new camera. I think all the dust over the years has pooched my current one as I had some problems with it AGAIN!

- I will publish the full results when they get posted. They had some issues with the RC Scoring Pro system at the end of the day and couldn't get it to print out.

- While Fred wasn't in attendance...he did let Jay Lovegrove drive his D8 (Chet brought if in case his electronics failed) after Jay's car broke. I noticed that he had put the camber blocks on the wrong sides and the car had some funky chicken steering going on until we fixed it

- Fred did show up to watch though on Saturday and he bought us lunch! thanks Fred!

Jay'isms

- Jay I think was last in the B Main for electric and battled in the main all the way into the lead (with a borrowed car) to bump up into the show. Good job buddy!

Ryan'isms

- Ryan let a little think called "work" get in the way of his racing fun....pfffffft, pussy.

Chet'isms*

- Even at 7am, my boy Chet has game with the ladies...LOL...He pretty much picked up the girl at Coffee Culture while grabbing some grub on the way to the track.

*while Chet is part of the "No 'isms" Club, I made an exception due to this impressive display of Machismo...haha

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

May 14, 15 and 16 brings us the opening round of the Canadian RC Pro Series at Niagra RC. I will be running both 8th scale electric and 8th scale nitro buggy. Matt's tracks are always a blast and it should be a great time. See you at the track!